Quarter Sessions Court of carnal abuse of Anna Gregory, his niece, a child of the age of fourteen years.

The case comes up on bills of exception and on specifications of causes for reversal on the entire record of the proceedings had upon the trial under section 136 of the Criminal Procedure act. Comp. Stat., p. 1863.

The indictment was found on June 24th, 1927, and averred that the offense was committed on September 26th, 1926. No other date was specified in the indictment, and the court charged in effect that a conviction would be justified upon proof that the offense was committed on that date or on a day within the period fixed by the statute of limitations. No complaint is made of that instruction. Hence it appears that the contention, which seems to run like a thread through the defendant's argument, that he was charged and convicted of an offense barred by the two-year statute of limitations, is ill-founded in fact.

At the trial it appeared that the defendant lived with the Gregory family in their apartment in Hoboken. (Anna Gregory and her mother both testified that she was fourteen years of age at the time of the offense charged in the indictment. The defendant contends that was not competent proof. That contention is ill-founded in law. The rule is that, on the trial of an indictment for carnal abuse of a female under the age of sixteen years, she and her mother are both competent witnesses to prove the fact of her age at the time of the commission of the offense. State v. Calabrese, 99 N.J.L. 312. The probative value of such testimony is for the jury to pass upon. State v. Girone, 91 Id. 498.)

It further appeared at the trial, and was admitted, that the defendant was twenty-four years old at the time of the offense charged in the indictment.

The complaining witness, Anna Gregory, testified that the defendant had sexual intercourse with her "about September 26th, 1926" (the date charged in the indictment). She ...

Our website includes the first part of the main text of the court's opinion.
To read the entire case, you must purchase the decision for download. With purchase,
you also receive any available docket numbers, case citations or footnotes, dissents
and concurrences that accompany the decision.
Docket numbers and/or citations allow you to research a case further or to use a case in a
legal proceeding. Footnotes (if any) include details of the court's decision. If the document contains a simple affirmation or denial without discussion,
there may not be additional text.

Buy This Entire Record For
$7.95

Download the entire decision to receive the complete text, official citation,
docket number, dissents and concurrences, and footnotes for this case.